Effects of Sand/Fly Ash and the Water/Solid Ratio on the Mechanical Properties of Engineered Geopolymer Composite and Mix Design Optimization

Abstract

This paper presents the results of an experimental study that investigated the effects of two parameters: sand/fly ash (S/FA) ratio and water to geopolymer-solid (W/GS) ratio on the engineered geopolymer composite. The trial mix designs were optimized using the response surface method. These parameters influence the properties of the fresh and hardened geopolymer matrix, such as slump flow, compressive strength, flexural strength, elastic modulus, flexural toughness, ductility index and drying shrinkage. The optimizing process was conducted by developing statistical models using the response surface methodology (RSM) technique. The developed models were statistically validated and could be used to determine the desired response of engineered geopolymer composite (EGC) with a significance level of more than 95%. In this study, the optimized values of the S/FA ratio and W/GS ratio were obtained as 0.341701 and 0.225184, respectively. To validate the optimized S/FA ratio and W/GS ratio, an experimental study was performed, and a difference of less than 5% was found between predicted and experimental results.